Breaking Nature
by Mistical Ninja
Summary: <html><head></head>After accepting a deal with a mysterious woman,Naruto soon finds himself thrust into a new way of life; and a war between the forces of light and dark. Traveling the land and defeating evil, it's all in a day's work. So what's this about getting married?</html>


Disclaimer: Naruto, and any other characters represented herein, belong to their original owners. This story is written purely for fun, so please, don't sue me.

WARNING!: Suspension of disbelief REQUIRED. This story is heavily AU, and breaks from canon the second it's out of the gate. On that note, please understand that I've taken quite a bit of artistic license with this one. Anyone who's played Agarest war will know what I mean, but nevertheless, I thank you for tuning in, and hope you enjoy the show!

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><p><strong>A Misty Mcmist Monster production.<strong>

**Pre-read and edited by Slytherin head.**

**Inspired by James "ray" Edwards.**

****Chapter 1: Rebirth**  
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><p>Pain.<p>

Blinding,

All consuming pain.

It swelled inside of him, flowed and ebbed with what was left of the pulse of blood inside him. Never in all his life had he thought it possible to feel this much pain at once. He tried to move his body, but found he was only able to twitch his fingers, jerk his legs. He drew in a ragged breath, and found the action set his chest ablaze – his breath cut short as blood flooded his mouth. He wretched it out, uncaring that it only splattered over him.

"Shit, is he conscious? I thought you drugged him!"

"I did! Dammit, is that damn fox trying to ruin everything?"

"Doesn't matter! Hokage's orders, keep him alive! Put pressure here, we've gotta stop this bleeding!"

The voices came too fast, and from too many directions for him to distinguish their origins. Slowly, he opened his eyes, and through the red haze that coated his vision, found himself staring up at a ceiling as it rushed by, it's lights too bright to his sensitive eyes. What was going on? Why did he hurt so much? He couldn't remember anything.

As if I answer to his thoughts, he felt the pain begin to subside. Felt his limbs grow numb, the pain replaced with an icy tingle as if a thousand needles had been strewn across his body.

"Dammit, this isn't working!"

"You wanna be the one to tell the Hokage we failed? Then keep trying!"

As his vision began to dim, a stray thought entered his mind. _Is this what dying feels like? But.. I'm not ready to die. I promised ojii-san I'd become a great ninja. I... there was so much I wanted to see and do..._

**_Do you wish to live then?_** The words reverberated through his mind, cold and calculating, and brought focus back to what was left of his mind. His vision shifted, and he found his gaze falling upon the most beautiful woman he'd seen in his life. Her soft green hair flowed down past her hips, her bangs cupping a heart shaped face, her skin porcelain in both smoothness and shade. What little she wore – two straps set across her chest in crisscrossing manner – barely covered her modesty, and instead accentuated her ample bosom.

_Who're you..?_ he thought weakly, trying to keep his focus on the woman.

_**Who I am is unimportant at the moment. The question is, do you truly wish to live? I can give you that chance, at a price.**_

_Price..?_

_**That's right. I can give you the strength to live again, and more strength than you've ever imagined possible. But in exchange, your fate, and the fate of your children, belong to me. Understand, that I am no villain. I wish you no harm. But this world has need of one with the strength to save it. This world has need of a Spirit Vessel once more.**_

_**'Dyshana. You would interfere with the workings of this world again? Why?'**_ Another voice broke in, strong, and filled with Malice and hatred. **_'For this... Human? You know that if you do, I will be free once more.'_**

_**I know you are there as well, Kyuubi-sama. And I also know what it is that has corrupted you. But the freedom you think you will achieve with this agreement is one that shall never come to pass. You are linked to this boy, now and forever, just as he and his descendants would be linked to me, should he accept.**_

_**'...You play a dangerous game, Dyshana. You know they will hunt him to the ends of the Earth.'**_

_**And I shall handle that problem as well, my ignoble friend. Have some faith in me.**_

_**'Feh. Very well. Naruto-Human, what is your answer?'**_

Most of what he heard he didn't understand. But he knew this much: for some reason he felt as though he could trust this woman, this... Dyshana. She spoke of the world needing saving, how it would need his strength. If that didn't gain him the recognition of the villagers, what else could?

"Shit, I'm losing him!"

_I accept, Dyshana-sama. _His body grew cold then, and his vision dimmed. The last thing he saw was Dyshana's face as she leaned in close, her eyes a million shades of colors. She smiled, a coy, playful smile, then kissed him softly.

_**You chose well, young Naruto. Rest now. We shall meet again, soon enough.**_

"... I... H-he's gone."

"Inform the Hokage: Naruto Uzumaki is dead. Kami save us all."

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><p>When Naruto came to next, his first action was to gasp for air. In doing so, he got a mouthful of – something – and instead sent himself into a gagging fit. He rolled onto his side and reached up with one hand, pulling the cloth that had invaded his mouth away. Once he was finally able to take in a breath of fresh air, he took the time to survey his surroundings. He found himself in an almost pitch black room, lying atop table of some kind, the only light source he could find streamed in from a set of doors to his left. In this brief survey he also discovered two very distinct things.<p>

First: his body hurt like hell. Every muscle felt like it was on fire, and every nerve felt flayed. His senses seemed out of whack, the air tasted strongly of mildew and smelled of rotten decay. The metal table under him was hard and cold to his too-warm touch. He could hear the buzz of a bug of some kind as it flitted about across the room, disturbed by his sudden movement in this room of stillness and silence. Even the light was harsh against to his eyes, a thousand times too bright to his suddenly sensitive eyes.

Secondly: he was butt-ass naked. "What the hell?" he rasped, and found his throat terribly dry, even as he tried in vain to lick his lips. While this wasn't too terribly bad, it still felt strange to suddenly wake up and find himself in an unfamiliar place – and naked, of all things. He tried to remember how he'd gotten there, but could only remember flashes, images of a girl with white eyes. The flash, and then bite of steel against his stomach. The smell of bile and copper.

And pain. Indescribable pain.

Had he truly died then? His thoughts shifted then, to the green haired girl. His contract with her. She had brought him back then. She had given him a second chance. He remembered another voice then, one that had resonated from deep inside him. What was that? What had happened to him? Just what was he now?

All questions of the sort would have to wait, for at that moment his too sensitive ears picked up the squeal of a door turning on it's hinges down the hall, and the clack of leather against ceramic. Forcing his muscles to move, Naruto threw himself off the edge of the table, his legs nearly collapsing the moment he did but he caught himself with one steadying arm atop the table. Snarling at the pain, he gathered the cloth that had covered him, and wrapped it around his waist even as he hobbled to one side of the room. He soon found the wall, cold and metallic to the touch, and flattened himself against it just as the door into the room swung open.

A moment later, Naruto found himself momentarily blinded as the lights about the room instantly came on, forcing him to shut his eyes even as he raised one arm protectively. "Awake then, eh boya?" he heard a honey sweet, feminine voice lilt from the doorway. He blinked at that, and after a moment his eyes finally adjusted to the light in the room. He focused on the doorway as he lowered his arm, and found himself in the presence of the second most beautiful woman he'd seen in recent memory.

Looking at her, he would put her in her late twenties, with lightly tanned porcelain skin and dark chocolate brown hair as long as Dyshana's. It was held together at the end with a simple white hair tie, another two tied into her breast length bangs. She wore some form of variant Miko robe, a short red skirt and thigh high red leggings with bells tied to them in place of the hakama, and her kimono worn lazily off her shoulders. She wore a sapphire jeweled necklace around her neck, accented with a single dark violet gem and four animal fangs, two on either side of it.

But what struck and captivated his attention the most was her face – specifically – her _third eye_. It rested square in the middle of her forehead, unblinking, and was hued a slightly lighter shade then the deep magenta of her eyes. Aside from that startling feature, she bore two matching Magenta colored "fangs" on her cheeks giving her an almost wild, animalistic look.

She smiled coyly then, and purred, "Well, aren't you just the cutest little boy, mm?"

Her words snapped him from his reverie and his eyes quickly focused elsewhere as his cheeks began to burn. "_Etou,_ um.. who're you?"

She giggled at that, a playful, happy sound that filled his ears, then moved closer to him. Leaning down, she ruffled his hair with one hand and smiled at him, "_Ayyaaaahhh,_ but we'll have to do something about those manners. Don't you know it's rude to ask things of someone without even introducing yourself first?"

"Eh? Oh, er – " Inwardly, he growled at himself. What was wrong with him? He'd never been this shy before! Then again, he'd never been near someone quite so beautiful before either, or someone who _wasn't_ hateful towards him, so maybe that was a good enough explanation? No, that was an excuse he told himself, and he wouldn't stand for it. Bolstering up what courage he had, he smiled right back at her, " Uzumaki Naruto, age ten, future Hokage of Konoha, _Dattebyo!"_

_Ooh..? Hnn, a minute ago, he was so shy and withdrawn, _She thought to herself, y_et now he's confident and boisterous. Full of life, and the will to live, eh? What an interesting boy you picked this time, Dyshana-sama._

"Hmm, Na-ru-to-kun, Eh?" she purred, enunciating each syllable of his name as she said it for the first time, drawing even more heat to his cheeks as she did, before she continued, "Well, my name is Vira-lorr. Dyshana-sama sent me to look after you for her and to give you whatever help and training you need."

"Eh? D-dyshana-sama did..? S-so then you..."

"Yep! I know who and what you are Naruto-kun. And speaking of taking care of you, here,"she said, handing him a small pack which once he opened, he discovered contained a small assortment of clothing, "Why don't you go get changed?" she said, motioning towards a small screen on one side of the room. Remembering his state of sheet-only clothing, he blushed again, and did as he was told. While he changed, she did her best to explain, her voice soft and sympathetic, "I know you've probably got a lot of questions right now, and I'll do my best to answer them all, in time."

Finally, he came out from behind the screen, dressed in a long sleeve black tee, a pair of jeans and finally, a pair of standard sandals. She smiled as she took in his appearance, then continued, "For now though, I'd imagine you're pretty hungry, huh?"

At the mention of that, his stomach gave a mighty (see: pathetic) roar, and after a moments awkward pause Vira burst into fits of laughter.

"_U-urusai!_ It's not that funny!" Naruto defended, which only brought more laughter from Vira, causing her to double over. He knew he should be angry at that moment, but despite himself, he could only muster a mild embarrassment. He would come to understand in time, that when it came to Vira, he could never drive himself to be angry with her, or _stay angry_ for that matter. Finally, her laughter subsided into fitful giggles, and she ruffled his hair once more.

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, it was just too perfect." She straightened then, a brilliant smile on her face as she stretched out her hand to him, "Come on, lets go get you something to eat, neh?"

In that action, every emotion, every barrier he'd ever set up, seemed to come tumbling down. The mask of strength, of self reliance slipped off, and in it's place the real Naruto appeared. The scared, ten-year-old boy without a home, family, or friend to call his own. The boy who'd never know the simple touch of another person, outside of a vengeful fist. In that moment, as he took her offered hand, and walked out of the morgue, his entire life changed.

In later years, he would look back on that moment, and see just how very symbolic that scene was – Vira guiding him out of the land of the dead, saving him, from himself.

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><p>After leaving the morgue they made their way through the streets of Konohagakure during the dead of night, with none the wiser as to who they truly were. Naruto was used to most ignoring him, but what confused him was how little reaction his presence caused at all, something that he brought up to Vira-lorr.<p>

"_Un,_ I'd imagine so. After all, no one expects the 'demon-fox' to be walking the streets anymore."

"Wh-what? D-demon fox? What's that supposed to mean? And why wouldn't they?" he nearly shouted in confusion, his chest constricting as he stared at her. She turned and met his eyes squarely, then leaned down until their eyes were level. Placing a hand on his head, she explained in a soft voice, "You were dead, Naruto-kun. Have been, for the past three days. As far as the world is concerned, 'Uzumaki Naruto' ceased to exist days ago. Which also means that no one who knew you can know you're actually alive – not yet anyways."

"Wh-what? Why not? What do you mean, Vira-san?"

"Because, Naruto-kun, there are still those out there who are after you for what you were. Who want the power that used to reside inside you." Suddenly, the looks, the hatred – everything that he had ever experienced made sense.

"T-the Kyuubi..?"

"_Hai._ It was sealed inside of you, Naruto-kun, by your dad. He knew that you would have the strength to conquer it, knew that you would need it's strength to stop an evil that threatened your village."

"Inside...me? ...Evil? But you said that it's not there anymore. Where is it?"

Vira's expression turned thoughtful, and her third eye seemed to glimmer for a moment before she finally shrugged. "Safe enough. Where exactly... I do not know. But, Dyshana-sama would ensure that a being of it's origin would eventually return to it's rightful state." She took in Naruto's still entirely confused expression and let out a gentle chuckle. "Come on, I'll explain better over some food."

Thus, unable to visit Ichiraku Ramen, they instead settled for a nearby Yakiniku restaurant. While their food cooked on the grill before them, Vira did her best to explain what she knew of Naruto's past, and why it was best to stay 'dead'. How it was that someone had somehow drawn the Kyuubi from his mother, and had in turn, nearly destroyed Konoha. Finally, Naruto nodded in understanding, or as close as he could get to it. His next question though was a bit more personal for Vira. "_Ano, _Vira-Oneesan, just what are you? How do you know all that?"

At first, Vira found herself surprised, before a wide grin broke across her face. "_Oneesan?_What's with that, Naruto-kun?"

He felt his cheeks flush slightly, and shrugged slightly, "You're here for me, right? To look out for me. S-so that makes you... my _Oneesan_."

At his words, she felt more warmth flood her heart than she had felt in _so_ _many_ millennia_. _Her smile widened and she reached across the grill, placing her hand atop his head once more, she ruffled his hair, "You truly are the cutest boy in the world, aren't you? _Yoshi! _I'll be your _Oneesan!_" _It's a promise, Naruto-kun._

"As to _what_ I am..._ano..._ how best to explain it,"she said, letting her hand drop away before reaching for a strip of pork, Naruto mimicking her. They took a moment to savor their food before Vira continued, " Well, in the time I come from, I was one of the few Oneltes of our world. Our people were best known for our third eye," she said, gesturing to it, "as it granted us the ability to see the future. I was one of the strongest amongst us, though we were already few. We were both revered and feared for our abilities, and thus, we were hunted. Most of my people hid their eye so that they might live a normal life, but that was never the path for me. I displayed mine proudly, and always have."

"S-so then, you know what I'm going to say, before I say it?"

She laughed at that, shaking her head, "No, The Sight has dimmed since my glory days. Now, I rarely am granted any visions, though occasionally I'll see someone of importance to me."

He nodded at that, seeming to understand it, when the rest of her explanation sunk in. "Wait, your time? T-time-travel?"

Again she laughed, "I suppose you could say that, though in truth it's closer to immortality. In the time I come from, I was with the first Spirit Vessel, Leonhardt. I walked beside him, and later, his children. Afterwards, Dyshana 'halted' my 'time'. I was to be a... guide of sorts, for future Vessel's. Thus, I have witnessed this world die, be reborn, and die again. And I'll likely still be here when the universe finally comes to a screeching halt."

"_Ano... _isn't that... lonely..?" Naruto whispered softly as he picked up a piece of pork, and thus nearly missed the sad look that filled Vira-lorr's eyes. "_Hai_." But then she smiled softly at him, "But, every now and then, I'll met a cute boy, and find myself in admirable company for a time."

She chuckled then, "In truth, I think you'll likely be the youngest one yet. Even Leonhardt, the first Spirit Vessel, was twenty-three when we first met."

"Eh? ...Was he strong?"

She nodded at that, "One of the strongest. Even before he became a Spirit Vessel and gained all the power Dyshana granted him, he had already made a name for himself. He was known as the 'Golden Leo', and was a general. When he stepped onto the battlefield, it was as if mountains moved at his command," she commented wistfully, and watched the look of determination that set into Naruto's face.

_Yoshi! Leo, I swear it! One day, I'll grow stronger, stronger then even you!_ _I'll become better then even 'the Golden Leo, BE-Lieve it!'_

Vira smiled as she watched him, little doubt as to what thoughts floated through Naruto's head. An interesting boy, indeed.

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><p>Afterwards, they made their way towards the gates of Konoha. As they walked, Naruto thought over everything that they had talked about, and knew there were a few points he still was unsure about. "<em>Onee-chan, <em>What's it mean to be a Spirit Vessel?" She looked over at him as they walked, and knew it would likely be best to explain what she could.

"Understand, Naruto-kun, there are some things I can't explain to you. Some things you have to learn, and discover for yourself. What I can tell you is this: as a Spirit Vessel, you're granted tremendous power. The reason for this, is that the foe you now face, the..._darkness – _for there is no better term for it – that darkness that now hunts you, is just that powerful. It is a being that seeks to cover the world in darkness and chaos, to destroy and consume everything, and it will use any means, and any _one_ to do it's bidding. As the Spirit Vessel, you have a form of immunity to it, as it cannot inhabit that which is already inhabited."

"Eh..? So then... wait... it couldn't have taken over me when I held the Kyuubi?"

"Correct. _But_ it could corrupt the Kyuubi, and thus you as well. In truth, it already had."

"HWEH?"

"Don't sound so surprised. Originally, the Kyuubi was a spirit of nature. A part of this world. But then the darkness twisted it, corrupting everything about it. In doing so, it gained a terrible and powerful ally." Vira smiled then. "But, thanks to you, there's a chance for it. With Dyshana's help, there's a chance it could be returned to what it once was. One can only hope."

As they continued on through the streets of Konoha, they passed the Hokage tower, and it was then that Naruto noticed the man sized 'X''s atop it. "_Ano,_ _onee-chan, _what's that up there?" She paused only for a few moments, looking up at the top of the tower, before she turned her attention to Naruto.

"The corpses of the traitors who killed you, Naruto-kun. After your death, they were hunted like dogs, then butchered and put on display as a demonstration of what happens to those who betray Konoha. In old man Hokage's eyes, you were a hero. Your death is going to have a great many effects– changes – upon this place." In that one moment, Naruto never felt more guilty in his life. He knew it wasn't his fault, but because of him, three people were already dead. But then, he supposed that as a _shinobi_ he would have taken far many more lives. The greatest regret though, was the heartache he knew the Hokage had to be going through.

_And you can't tell him._ He remembered idly. He knew, no one could know that he was alive. Looking at the bodies, he tried to remember how he had died. Slowly, it came to him. It had been the eve of the Kyuubi's defeat, a festival of sorts held in the village. Several drunken Shinobi, mad with righteous fury and armed for the kill, had come after him. He'd escaped, ran, and evaded them for some time, hoping the ANBU would show up soon to stop them, as they always did.

He crossed paths with the girl of white eyes, frightened and shy as he passed her. The whistle of steel, and the realization that the Shinobi's throw was off. He'd knowingly stepped into the _Fuma Shuriken_ and had nearly been cut in half because of it. But he'd saved the girl.

With that knowledge, he found that he knew deep in his heart then that they could no longer stay there, and thus they turned from the Hokage's tower, and continued on for the gates. From there, Naruto's training would begin as they traveled the lands, both to become a man, and ultimately, a warrior. As they neared the gates, Naruto turned back one last time. He drank in Konoha, for no matter how much he knew he had to leave, nothing could shake the fact that this was all he knew.

"Do... do you think we'll come back one day..?" he said softly, and found her hand on his head once more.

"_Hai. _Definitely, you'll see this place once more."

It was with those words, that he turned once more, and took his first step into the outside world, and onto a destiny he could never have imagined.

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><p><strong>To be continued...<strong>

**A/N: It's done! The first chapter -finally- in all it's glory. Again, I thank you for tuning in, and I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it! Feel free to comment, review, and/or discuss the story as much as you'd like. Your comments really can make a difference, and every little bit helps!**


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